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Wild Aim High As Trip Ends in St. Louis |
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Wild Game Day number 17
Wild Record (10-4-2 22 pts)
Road Record (5-4-0)
Opponent: St. Louis Blues (6-5-3 15 pts)
Home Record (5-4-1)
Site: Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO
Time: 2:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last Season Results:
11/25 Wild 3 @ Blues 6
12/2 Blues 1 @ Wild 2 (OT)
2/6 Wild 6 @ Blues 2
2/27 Blues 3 @ Wild 8
Last result:
11/3 Wild 5 @ Blues 1
The Wild record long road swing ends this afternoon in St. Louis and what a trip it has been for Bruce Boudreau's team. Entering today's game the Wild have won two straight and four of the first six of this seven straight road game stretch.
Two of the Wild's most dominant wins of the short season have come on the road first in St. Louis, the site of today's matchup, a 5-1 drubbing of the Blues, and an identical score Friday night in Anaheim vs. the Ducks.
The first contest between the Wild and Blues was a one sided affair, with Minnesota taking it to St. Louis from the outset. That game appeared more like a poor effort on the Blues part combined with a solid road performance by the Wild.
Today should be a better game as the Blues will have revenge on their minds, from last Saturday's underwhelming showing in front of the home crowd.
Minnesota has put together quite an impressive run winning 9 of their last 11 after getting out of the gate slowly winning just one of their first five.
The story of the Wild has been great goaltending combined with consistent production from their blueline.
Minnesota's powerplay has been pretty consistent during the road trip as well going 6 for 22, while the PK continues to sparkle ranking fourth in the league heading into today's game, killing at a rate of 84.7%.
St. Louis will have Chad Johnson in goal today. Johnson has started the Blues last two games both St. Louis victories, 4-1 over Carolina and a 4-0 blanking of the Sharks Friday night. Johnson sports a 2-2-0 record but a sparkling 1.83 GAA, and 94.1 save percentage.
Wild projected lines:
Zucker-Staal-Granlund
Parise-Koivu-Niederreiter
ErikssonEk-Coyle-Greenway
Foligno-Fehr-Brown
Suter-Dumba
Brodin-Spurgeon
Seeler-Pateryn
Dubnyk
Stalock
It's always Hockey Day in the State of Hockey!
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